On December 9, 1915, the Bemidji Pioneer printed a 44-page “Booster Edition” of the paper while the Northern Minnesota Development Association was holding its annual meeting in the city. Below is the front page of the edition.
The Northern Minnesota lumber boom peaked in 1905, and by 1915 annual lumber production had fallen to half of 1905 levels. Roughly a decade later the boom would be over, when the last remaining large mill, the Crookston mill in Bemidji, closed in 1926. So it’s interesting that only the bottom right corner of the image has any logs. The rest — and the basis of the prosperity the boosters were promoting — was devoted to farming. I’ll have a lot more to say about that, as I continue my research.
MakingHistory.blog 